~ Newberg Noon Rotary Club Newsletter ~
Rotary Club of Newberg, Zoom Meeting
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
~ Zoom Meeting Participants ~
Shannon B, Mike, Dan, Gene, Debby, Brandy, Larry, Kathie, Denise, Joe, Amber, Paula, Kim, Auggie, Lynn, Geoff, Todd, Dale, Lisa, Ralph, Michelle, Matt, Walter, Julie, Judy, Doug, Jim, Shannon K.
~ Call to Order ~
President Shannon Buckmaster welcomed Rotarians and Friends of Rotary to the Zoom meeting at 12:10 p.m. Wednesday, November 25, 2020. The Rotarians did a 10 minute large group chat instead of breakout sessions today.
~ Flag Salute ~
Gene lead participants in the Pledge of Allegiance.
~ 4 Way Test ~
Todd lead participants in the recital of the 4 Way Test:
Rotary’s Four Way Test of the things we think, say and do:
#1 – Is it the TRUTH?
#2 – Is it FAIR to all concerned?
#3 – Will it BUILD GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
#4 – Is it BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
~ Announcements ~
Shannon shared that the Early Birds Rotary Club of Newberg is having their Virtual Christmas Auction from December 1 to December 10. There will be a live portion which includes a paddle raise. Sherrie from the Early Birds will be here next week with more information.
~ Guests ~
No Guests today
~ The Rotary Duck ~
Paula: Paula recently had a chance to catch up with her nephew from Kazakhstan, which was very nice and looks forward to visiting him again.
Mike: There are a lot of things going on at the district level: President elect training, a district assembly in April, and more. He noticed our club is an anomaly. After 15 years of fluctuating membership, we are currently up to 75 members, including our honorary members. As a means of district comparison, over the last 9 years, McMinnville went from 100 members to 41, Clackamas went from 89 to low 60s. The downward trend over the decade is nearly district-wide with the exception of Newberg. We should be proud that our membership has done so well, and even includes many younger members than in the past. Portland Kawanis even folded after 100 years.
Shannon B: The great sustaining efforts of the Newberg club is a tribute to us all and our efforts. Lets continue to show resilience and lead by example.
Kathie: Donated in memory of a dear friend who passed away unexpectedly. He was her pastor and board member to LINCS, a Sheridan non-profit helping youth in the community. He lived a life of love and acceptance, inspiring her in many ways.
Dan: Wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. His family will for-go the typical family tradition and instead ordering a meal in an effort to support a local business during the shutdown. Many restaurants are open and selling Thanksgiving meals each year. Shannon B said she will be doing the same, at Rosmarino Osteria Italiana.
Dale: Expressed that we all have so much to be thankful for. He is thankful that he works with great people worldwide at Relief International and dedicated his donation in honor of the first COVID-19 death at his global organization, a Doctor in Syria. Additionally, he honored an employee who used to work for him who had his funeral yesterday, Sergei, a military man and was killed in action.
Julie & Walter: They are thankful to be in Rotary, as a Rotarian recently stepped up to help them out with something they were unable to do themselves due to old age. Thanks for being there for one another!
Todd: Thanked the Friendsview employees and residents for their high levels of efforts in fighting COVID. They had a difficult month whereby they had to do several rounds of COVID testing resulting from different occasions of contact tracing and possible positive tests. Their great efforts have really served to protect everyone living and working at Friendsview. They have only had 1 resident test positive, and that was back in March. Shannon B thanked them for their diligence as they have always had impeccable integrity and always treated their staff well.
Joe: Gave a shoutout to all parents, grandparents, legal guardians, and other community members who have been supporting their students over the last few months. Also reminded us that Friday the 27th is Native American Heritage Day in the US. Specifically honoring the Yamhill Native America Tribe, for which Yamhill County was named, who are an important part of our history.
Shannon B: Fined herself for the noisy birds we all heard singing in the background of her house. They were an early Christmas gift for her son and they get really excited, especially when she is in virtual meetings.
Kim: Thanked everyone who has supported her in terms of our successful membership efforts. Also, gave a shoutout to her mom who works in a care center in Utah, and has also been working very hard with regards to fending off COVID. All of the care centers deserve credit for their life saving efforts.
Ralph: Gave kudos to YCAP. He has been giving assistance to a homeless individual by allowing her to live on his property, but told her she needs to find a safe option for winter. She was recently successful in getting temporary housing at a Motel through YCAP at least through the holiday season.
Matt: Has been absent from several meetings, but is thankful for Beavers recent success, his kids doing well in their first quarter of school, and proud of his wife for working, taking classes, and serving the community.
Auggie: Auggie announced his presentation of each of the Rotary Quilt Squares over the next 9 weeks, which he used as his virtual background:
Total Collected today for the Duck: $275
~ Today’s Program: Debby Thomas: Classification Talk ~
Debby is the Dean of the College of business at George Fox University, a Leadership Coach at Professional Development Academy, and a Newberg Resident and Professional. She has joined Rotary in the spirit of her lifelong goal of helping people. Additonally, as the dean of the College of Business at George Fox, she hopes to work towards further integrating her department into the community. She is excited to learn about different opportunities for herself, her students, and GFU to serve the community.
Debby lives in Newberg with her Family. She has 4 kids, one born in Tualatin, and another in Belgium, while they lived there preparing for a move to Rwanda. Her youngest two kids were born in Rwanda, where they lived for 20 years working as a missionary. She met her husband at George Fox, and noted that her kids are 5th generation students at GFU! She was really hoping to work for George Fox after moving back to the states and she was fortunate enough for that to work out for her.
Rwanda is a the “Country of 1000 Hills” named for its terrain, and is located right in the heart of Africa. It is very small but very densely populated. After she and her husband graduated from GFU, they made plans to serve in India to work with the organization Evangelical Friends Mission, but they ended up being sent by the organization and by God to Rwanda, which happened to be during an extremely politically dangerous period. Her family was even robbed at their home, at gunpoint on her second week living there! They were so committed to helping/serving that they stayed, persisted, and learned the language, which is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. She found that the people of Rwanda had a great enthusiasm at church but went home to terrible standards of living, where they had high fatality rates to illnesses and poor educational attendance. Debby decided to spend her time serving in Rwanda to work to really provide a whole-life transformation for the people of her new community. She partnered with Discipleing for Development, a group that helped with those efforts of working with the people towards improving the communities. They succeeded in helping many people help themselves in terms of getting out of poverty, which rippled out positivity and improvements in other aspects of life. Their success included really doing research, working with the people to make sure they recognize what needs they have and are ready to buy into. They even worked with the United Nations and learned from past mistakes made from other organizations or past efforts. She really strived to empower the people to change their own minds and believe in themselves and what they are working towards, to ensure that they become self-sustaining rather than reliant on the missionaries.
She also started and ran a school, teaching other kids of missionaries. Her kids very much enjoyed growing up in Africa, and attended a Christian school in Kenya. Their campus even was home to interesting wildlife including Baboons and monkeys.
She has also started and run a few commercial businesses making and selling foods such food made from the extremely nutritious extracts from the Morniga Tree. She will forever be a huge fan of ethinic foods. She now lives in Newberg and works at GFU.
~ Next Week’s Program: Classification Talk by Amber Hansen-Moore ~
Check your e-mails for Mike Caruso’s Zoom meeting access information.
~ Joke of the Day ~
I’ve decided to quit my side job as a personal trainer because I’m not big enough or strong enough. I just gave my too weak notice.
~ Happy Quotes! ~
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
– John F. Kennedy
~ Published 11/26/2020: Dan Keuler, Newsletter Editor ~
